At the Museum of Science, mirror maze proves math can be fun

Wednesday

Mar 7, 2018 at 2:51 PMMar 8, 2018 at 1:19 PM

Jody Feinberg The Patriot Ledger

BOSTON - Math - love it or dread it, it underpins the natural and man made world, and even the human body. That fact can seem abstract, but becomes concrete in an entertaining exhibit on mathematical patterns and an inspiring IMAX film on engineering at the Museum of Science.

"For every pattern, every shape, relationship, there is a mathematical formula that captures it precisely and explains it clearly," reads the introductory wall text to "A Mirror Maze: Numbers in Nature." "Mathematical patterns are hiding in plain sight throughout the world."

Beyond the usual hands-on experiences, the exhibit has a full-body one - visitors walk through an 1,800-square foot maze of 86 connected mirrors - often with outstretched arms so they don't walk into glass - and make their way through the twists, turns and dead-ends. It's more fun-house than math, though the tree branches framing the mirrors and geometric floor pattern illustrate two mathematical patterns explored in the exhibit.

Rather than a numbers approach to math, "A Mirror Maze: Numbers in Nature," created by he Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, is conceptual and visually rewarding. All the concepts have interactive elements that show how seemingly unconnected things are similar.

Dragonfly wings, latte foam, honeycomb and corn kernels all have a Voronoi pattern. It's the way nature tightly packs elements into a space. Lungs, circulatory systems, leaf veins, trees and some coral have fractal branching, which maximizes liquid flow. Spirals seem to be everywhere - nautilus shells, ram's horns, human ears, curled ferns, clouds, hurricanes, galaxies and the arrangement of seeds in a sunflowers, pine cones and other plants. The Golden Ratio - a particularly eye-pleasing relationship - can be seen in the proportions of the human body and face, petals of a flower, ladybugs, the Mona Lisa, violins and The Parthenon and other buildings.

Spin a disc and see the patterns and forms emerge. Stand before a screen and move your hand, and like a magician, a sunflower opens and the seeds appear in a spiral pattern and the flower rotates. Pose to see how your body reflects the Golden Ratio. Look at butterflies, coral and other specimens, and even art. Inspired by the fractal branching that creates tunnels in ant hills, an Alabama farmer created a metal inverted cone of pathways, and fascinated by the ways plants pack seeds, a British artist made a bronze egg-like shape sculpture studded with seeds.

In the IMAX film, "Dream Big: Engineering Our World," mathematical understanding enables engineers to design and build the structures that support civilization and make life safer.

"Every bridge, dam and building comes from an engineer's imagination and knowledge," said narrator Jeff Bridges.

Focusing on three female engineers (clearly intended to challenge the field's traditional male domination), the film follows them as they design earthquake resistant buildings in San Francisco and Nepal, bridges in Haiti, wind resistant skyscrapers in Shanghai, solar energy stations and underwater robots.

As the Earth's population increases and settles in crowded cities, a major challenge will be to provide housing and renewal energy, Bridges explained. Among the solutions presented are skyscrapers such as the 128-floor Shanghai Towers with 16,000 residents, whose twisted design causes winds to glide around it, and a massive solar station and wheel in the Scottish highlands.

These engineers are committed to protecting people from devastating harm: a Turkish woman chose to be an engineer in order to design earthquake resistance structures after 45,000 people died from a quake in her country, and an American engineer decided to organize professionals and volunteers in Haiti to build a low-cost bridge after Haitians drowned when they tried to walk through river water to reach the medical clinic and school on the other side.

It's inspiring to see Mexican-American high school students in Arizona find solutions when money and resources are limited. At a national underwater robotics competition, the high school robotics team beat MIT with a robot constructed from landscape piping and other inexpensive materials (and also stopped a last minute leak with a tampon).

Ingenuity has been part of engineering throughout human history. One of the most interesting simple solutions has helped the Great Wall of China stand for over 500 years - the Chinese mixed sticky rice with mortar to make the Great Wall more elastic to stretch and contract in response to weather conditions.

And while this film does not abound with flyovers that are highlights of IMAX films, it has thrilling moments when the audience feels like it's circling the Earth on the International Space Station and flying over the Golden Gate Bridge and the Great Wall of China.